The New York Giants will open their 2019 regular season this Sunday afternoon in Dallas against the Cowboys and expectations are running higher than they have in several years.
On Thursday, the team’s three coordinators addressed the media fielding questions on how the Giants plan on attacking and defending in Big D this week.
Offensive coordinator Mike Shula
“Their speed and quickness,” Shula said when asked what stands out about the Dallas defense. “They’re built for speed. They’ve always been. They get to the ball fast. They fly around, and because they get to the ball so quickly, they’ve created a lot of turnovers. Their scheme allows them to play really, really fast and they’ve drafted guys within that scheme that can be very disruptive.”
The Giants upgraded the right side of their offensive line with guard Kevin Zeitler and tackle Mike Remmers, who is limited in practice this week with an combination of an illness and a sore back. Shula spoke about the situation at tackle, where Remmers is scheduled to square off with Pro Bowler Demarcus Lawrence.
“Obviously, we want our guys that were in all preseason and hopefully that’s going to be the case on Sunday. If not, we go in with our next guy. Whether or not all of a sudden, we need to tweak something based on someone on the offensive line not playing, we’ll look at it. But for the most part, we have guys on our team that we feel like can come and play and help us win.”
Special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey
The Giants were one of the top kick and punt defenders the league last year and that’s because of McGaughey and the emphasis general manager and Dave Gettleman and head coach Pat Shurmur place on teams. Dallas has an excellent return game and McGaughey isn’t about to let his guard down.
“They have a great group of specialists, starting with their returners,” he said. “When you look at Tavon Austin, and what he’s been able to do in this league for years, he’s always scary. Tony Pollard, who is a young returner they have that they drafted last year, I would fully expect to see him back there returning kickoffs. He had seven kickoff returns for touchdowns in college. He’s very explosive in the return game.”
As for the Giants’ return game, McGaughey finally revealed his plans.
“You know how we do it. It’s always kind of a hodge-podge. Jabrill (Peppers) will probably be back there returning punts, and Antonio Hamilton, (so) we’ll have those guys to work with,” McGaughey said. “Kickoff and return wise it will be the same guys you’ve seen in the preseason— Cody (Latimer) and Corey (Ballentine). We’ll go from there and rock with it. Those guys are talented. Jabrill has been doing it his whole life, it’s like riding a bike for him. (We’ve been) Putting him back there, he’s practicing every day, getting him back into the flow of the game, (so) he’ll be fine.”
Defensive coordinator James Bettcher
The biggest challenge of any team facing the Cowboys is keeping star running back Ezekiel Elliott in check. With Elliott just reporting to the team this week after a summer-long holdout, his game readiness is uncertain. That doesn’t mean much to Bettcher, who has his unit prepared for the two-time rushing champion.
“We all know Zeke is going to get touches, he is going to carry the ball,” said Bettcher. “He’s a special player, they have some special players on offense, it’s going to be a fun challenge for our guys. I don’t specifically know what the workload will be but I know he is going to touch and carry the ball.”
The Giants have been perplexed by quarterback Dak Prescott for several seasons now and must find a way to contain him as well. Bettcher was asked where the pressure is going to come from on Sunday.
“I think initially it’s going to be a group effort,” he said. “I can’t tell you 100 percent as we sit here today who’s going to be the sack leader, the disruptive player. To me, I kind of like that, because there is a little bit of unknown for people that are prepping for us. There’s a lot of guys that have something to go play and prove and establish themselves. I think it’s going to be exciting for me as I watch it from my position to see how it unfolds.”
